A traveller for Christ
The life and work of the Reverend Trebor Mai Thomas (1910-1984)

by Rev Dr D Ben Rees

Trebor Mai Thomas was always proud of his
evolvement as a missionary in Shillong in North-East India. He was born on 3
May 1910 in Boncyn, Gaiman, Patagonia in Argentina, the son of Laura and
Edward Owen Thomas, and a grandson of one of the early pioneers of the Welsh
Colony. E O Thomas was an elder at the Welsh Chapel of Bethel, Gaiman, and his
son was educated locally and at the High School. At the age of 18 he left his
family in Bootle, becoming a member of Stanley Road Presbyterian Church of
Wales. When he sailed from South America, Welsh and Spanish were his
languages, so he went to the Preparatory College at Rhyl, called Coleg Clwyd,
for instruction in the English language. From there he gained access to the
University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he gained the degree of BA
with honours in Hebrew studies.
From Bangor he entered the United Theological College, Aberystwyth, gaining
the degree of BD in 1940. He went as one of five young ministerial students of
the Presbyterian Church of Wales – each of them a proud possess of BA and BD
degrees – to study at Selly Oak, Birmingham. The other four were George Hill
Morgan, Basil Jones, J Meirion Lloyd and D G Merfyn Jones.
Ordained at a Special Association meeting at Abergele on 18 September 1941, he
had married a month earlier with Nansi Davies, a teacher in Liverpool and an
organist at Heathfield Road Welsh Chapel. He was the only on of his four
contemporaries given permission to sail to India in the autumn of 1941.
Trebor Mai Thomas was sent out by the Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church
of Wales to serve among the young people in Shillong and on the Khasi Hills
but tat the outset he had to concentrate on ministering to the hundreds of
British soldiers from Burma (many of them being Welsh) who had come to
Shillong. He prepared weekday meetings for them very carefully, and also
Sunday services, as well as rearranging the work of the Christian Council of
Assam, extending its appeal considerably during the time he acted as its
Secretary.
Reverend Trebor Mai Thomas accomplished tremendous success in the development
of the Sunday School in North-East India. In Khasia the Sunday School became a
member of the Union of Sunday Schools of India, adopting its methods of
standardising its classes in particular among the children and young people.
New commentaries were prepared in the Khasi language for every department and
weekly classes were established in the Church to train and provide the
resources for the teachers. He was responsible for the tremendous renewal in
Christian education, and today there is a full-time secretary directing the
work of which Trebor Mai Thomas was such as integral part in the period
following the Second World War.
Trebor Mai was also a pioneer in the task of establishing a Christian College
at Barapani under the auspices of the Christian College of Assam. The Revd
Trebor Mai Thomas received a call to be the full-time minister of Mawkhar
Church, Shillong with 4,000 members, and he saw the Church grow year after
year during his ministry. Returning with his family in 1959, he received a
call to the Presbyterian chapels of Rehoboth, Holywell, and Presbytery on 28
September 1960 and this was a different world from Shillong, but he remained a
faithful traveller for Christ until his retirement. The service to release him
from the full-time ministry was held on 9 January 1980. The Revd T M Thomas
stayed at Holywell under the ministry of the Revd John H Tudor (who had been a
missionary himself in Taiwan) and died on 25 August 1984. The funeral service
was held at Pentrebychan Crematorium, Wrexham on 31 August 1984 and north east
Wales had lost a fine and enthusiastic servant of God.
After returning to Wales from India he was prominent in the work of the
missionary committees and in the formation of the Mission Board of the
Presbyterian Church of Wales, of which he was the first secretary. He had
unbounded enthusiasm for mission work and acknowledged that this urge to be a
missionary was to be credited to the influence of his minister in Bootle, the
Revd William Davies. During his college days he had been prominent in the
Student Christian Movement and the Student in Wales a catalyst for the lay
training centre at Trefeca, for the new Mission Board at the Cardiff Office
and in the Council for World Mission. For those who would like to know more
about him I would recommend you to read, the articles by J Hughes Morris Ein
cenhadwr newydd (Our new missionary). Y Cenhadwr, Vol XX, No 11, November
1941, pp 161-2; Ednyfed Thomas. Cyrraedd Gwlad yr Addewid (Reaching the
Promised Land). Y Goleuad, 14 September 1984, p7; Dr R Arthur Hughes. Y
diweddar Barch (The late Revd) Trebor Mai Thomas. Y Goleuad, 12 October 1984,
p 3; J H Tudor. Parch (The Revd) Trebor Mai Thomas, BA, BD [in] Yearbook of
the Presbyterian Church of Wales, 1985, p 211.

The Reverend Thomas
Jones arrived at Cherrapunjee on the 22 June 1841. He was the
first Missionary sent out to the Khasi Hills in India by the Welsh
Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Missionary Society (now known as the
Foreign Mission of the Presbyterian Church of Wales).
His arrival at Cherrapunjee was greeted and welcomed by the Khasi
people with great enthusiasm. They gathered around him and
requested him to teach them English because they felt once they
knew English they would be able to earn their livelihood anywhere.
With the help of two persons in the locality Viz U Jonkha and u
Duwan Rai, Thomas Jones himself was able to speak and preach in
the Khasi language within a short period of around 8 (eight)
months only.
Thomas Jones was a man of vision gifted with many talents which he
used for the spread of the Gospel and for the progress and
development of the Khasi Society. He demonstrated his love for the
people and very soon won their hearts and confidence. To him goes
the credit of many “Firsts” in the Khasi hills. He was the first
to introduce the Khasi Alphabet in Roman Script giving it a
phonetic structure by re-assigning the sounds represented by
various letters. This suited the language admirable unlike the
previous Bengali Script used by Alexander Lish (who came to the
Khasi Hills before Thomas Jones) and the Baptist Mission in
Serampore. In Khasi Literature up till now, Thomas Jones is
referred to as the father of the Khasi Alphabet. He laid the Khasi
literature on a firm foundation.
He started the first school in his residence for both boys and
girls. Around 20 students collected in his residence every morning
for prayer and Bible reading. This was in addition to his teaching
in the school. In 1842 he opened 3 schools at Mawmluh, and Sohra
thus heralding the beginning of formal education and educational
institutions in the Khasi Hills. The same year he introduced the
first Khasi book entitled: Ka Kot Pule banyngkong (The first Khasi
Reader) followed by Rhodd Man (The Mother’s Gift). He wrote the
first Catechism in Khasi know as Ka Jingai ka Kumi is la ki Koon
and also translated the Gospel according to St Matthew.
Thomas Jones taught the Khasis how to burn lime with coal which
was much cheaper than the usual practice of burning with wood. He
himself a born carpenter was the first at Cherrapunjee to use the
saw for cutting the timber and thus brought rudiments of modern
carpentry replacing the dae and axe which had been used in the
past for the purpose. He also taught them how to cut and dress the
stones meant for building construction and introduced new methods
of potato cultivation.
Above all, Thomas Jones was a Missionary and a Preacher of the
Gospel. His main concern was to lead people to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ. Using Cherrapunjee as a missionary station he
travelled very widely preaching the good news and asked people to
accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Many of them
responded sayings: ‘his words are very good and very sweet
indeed.’ His open air preaching in market places touched the
hearts of many people especially when he talked to them about
man’s sin and the need for repentance.
Although Thomas Jones served in the Khasi Hills and with the
Mission for a short period of six years only, but he made a
significant contribution to the success of the Welsh Mission on
these hills.
The Khasi Jaintia Presbyterian Synod has decided to celebrate the
Sesquicentential anniversary of the arrived of Thomas Jones I and
the beginning of the Christian Church in the Khasi Hills in a
befitting manner in March 1991; and as we do so, it is right and
proper that we give thanks to God for Thomas Jones and for what he
has done as a pioneer missionary on these hills.

The
Significance of Thomas Jones (1810-1849),Liverpool and Khasia Hills,
North East India

by Dr R Arthur Hughes, OBE, FRCE

We meet to
celebrate an event which initiated the most significant work
of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church or the Presbyterian
Church of Wales in al the years of its existence; the
departure of Thomas Jones and his wife Annie on the 25
November 1840 from Georges Dock, Liverpool, as their first
missionaries to North East India, then called Assam. It
would be a notable day for the history of the Presbyterian
Church of Wales that their first missionary went out on the 25
November. Without a doubt the news was responsible for a
demonstration of enthusiasm in the churches and presbyteries
and led to great generosity on their part, but it is important
to remember that this man Thomas Jones was that
first man, for we can say that is him and his service was
seen the germ of many of he virtues and tensions of missionary
policy.

Thomas Jones
was the son of a Montgomeryshire carpenter, Edward Jones and
his wife Mary Jones, Tan-y-ffridd, Llangynyw, and followed in
his father’s craft. He picked up other skills also as stone
mason and farmer and miller and several others. He began to
preach when he was about 25 years of age, about 1836, he
became one of the earliest students in Bala College under Dr
Lewis Edwards. His growing understanding of the Gospel exposed
him to the challenge of a missionary calling and, try to avoid
it as he might, it became the greatest imperative of his life.
Furthermore it was a call to him to serve in India-precisely
where he could not say. He was interviewed at North Wales
Association meeting and his teachers in Bala were asked to get
into touch with the London Missionary Society on his behalf.
That Society was the agency by which Missionaries from the
Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales found their field of
labour. They had gone, through this agency, to the South Sea
Islands, to South Africa, to Malacca. None of them had
returned to Wales, apart from one who returned and died within
the year. The latest of them was the Rev Josiah Hughes whose
father John Hughes was an office of Rose Place Chapel,
Liverpool. He had been sent to Malacca in 1830 but had served
his connection with the LMS after six years. He had however
stayed in the country as a chaplain after being ordained by
the Bishop of Calcutta. He was well known to, and corresponded
regularly with the Rev John Roberts, the First Secretary of
the Foreign Mission Office in Liverpool.

The cooperation
between the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and the London
Missionary Society had begun in 1792 and two delegates, namely
the Rev Thomas Charles and the Rev David Jones, Llangan, had
represented the Welsh Church as Directors. These two
championed with cause of the society in Wales. The financial
support of the Welsh churches was generous indeed for many
years, despite the general poverty of the country. There was a
however a growing sense of disaffection with the Society on
doctrinal grounds because it had become predominantly
Congregational, and there was feeling that some candidates
from amongst the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists had been
rejected, or had been given less favourable consideration in
placements, on no grounds other that that of their theology
and church affiliation. At the same time there was zeal for a
missionary cause, at home and overseas, and a growing sense
that they should have a missionary society of their own.

In this
somewhat tense situation, Thomas Jones was introduced to the
Directors of the Society by his mentor Dr Lewis Edwards in
Bala. Armed with medical certificates he met the directors,
who first questioned his suitability on health grounds for the
West Indies, then offered him appointment in South Africa. He
was pleased initially to be accepted at all, but his burning
desire to go to India made him reject South Africa, and,
despite his production of medical certificates from two
eminent physicians, Dr Addison of Guy’s Hospital, and Dr
Carson of Liverpool, the Society would not send him to India.
They did add to the note of rejection: ‘that a higher standard
of education was needed for India than could possibly be
attained by him in a reasonable period of time considering his
age.’ None of them, obviously, knew the human geography of the
sub-continent of India.

Ordained at an
Association but rejected by the London Missionary Society, he
went back to Liverpool and met his friends. An emergency
committee was called in Rose Place Welsh Calvinistic Methodist
Chapel on Friday night the 31 of January 1840 which decided
after a heated debate to form an independent a Missionary
Society and to send Thomas Jones and his wife on the perilous
journey to India.

It cannot be
denied that it was Thomas Jones’ pertinacity; his passion to
go to India; his demand that he should be allowed to go; which
precipitated the formation of the Missionary Society in
Liverpool. True, there was a general sense in the church that
an overseas missionary society should be formed but Thomas
Jones was responsible for setting light to the flame. John
Roberts (also known by his bardic name of Minimus) made up the
flame, and Rev Richard Williams (a native of Llanbryn-mair)
called upon the church to come and be warned by his new
venture.

There was
now a missionary society which had a pioneer to send out to
India but no definite field of service, though several places
had been suggested.
A strong individualistic missionary appeared on the scene,
namely the Rev Jacob Tomlin. He was an ex-London Missionary
Society worker in Malacca – where he had known and worked with
Josiah Hughes (of Rose Place). After leaving Malacca he had
gone to Calcutta where he knew the missionary leaders –
Presbyterian and Baptist. He went to Cherrapunji on the Khasi
Hills and stayed for nine months, and came to admire the
people before moving to stay for a while in Wavertree
Liverpool. The Serampore Baptists under William Carey had
conducted work among the Khasis on the plain of Sylhet since
1813, and had translated the New Testament into Khasi using
the Bengali script. They had a school in Cherrapunji on the
Hills since 1830, with Alexander Lish in charge, but in 1837
they had to close, leaving behind not a single convert.
The Gospels in Bengali script had proved to be inaccessible
and ineffective.

Tomlin stayed
with Lish just before the work on the Khasi Hills was wound up
and during his stay he saw the need and the opportunities.
Jacob Tomlin returned to Merseyside and settled in Liverpool
for two years and there he met Josiah Hughes’ friend John
Roberts and Thomas Jones. Tomlin in due course pressed the
case for the Khasi Hills and the proper sphere for the Welsh
Mission.

The
decision was made.
Now there remained only the problem of finding the passage
money – and money to support the work.

In due course
they did sail in the Jamaica, a sailing ship built in 1834 and
owned by Holt and Co of Liverpool. It was registered at Lloyds
as plying between Liverpool and Jamaica, under its Captain J
Johnson. It must have been chartered for this voyage to
Calcutta, a ‘one off’ ship. Ships of this kind were primarily
traders, but they would have a few cabins which were the
perquisites of the captain to let as he wished.

The directors
of this very young missionary society were encouraged to
believe in the rightness of their choice of the Khasi Hills as
the field for their labours by the fact that they had been
offered cabin accommodation for Thomas and Mrs Ann Jones in
the Jamaica to Calcutta at Fifty pounds less that the standard
passage money. How could this have happened so providentially?
I believe that the clue to this is that Richard Roberts, Ships
chandler, from whom ship’s captains got their supplies, and
the Rev John Roberts, his son, who was the secretary of the
Mission committee and was also connected with a shipping firm
J B Yates and Co of King Street Liverpool, turned to Capt J
Johnson the master of the ‘Jamaica’ and simply asked for his
generosity towards this young missionary society. Thomas Jones
in his farewell address in Rose Place on the on the 4th
November said ‘they tell me the Captain is a kind man’ and the
way Captain Johnson demonstrated his kindness was by giving up
fifty pounds of his legitimate perquisites. This was the
providential means to make the voyage possible.

But it was the
judgement made by John Roberts (Minimus), that the Khasi Hills
was the best field, which determined this action, and we must
say of him that he was without doubt the one man who knew most
about missionary activity overseas. He had been in constant
communication, subject to the delays of long transit times,
with Josiah Hughes in Malacca and I believe he would have met
socially with the leaders of the churches in Liverpool which
had missionary activities especially Samuel Hope representing
the Serampore group of the Baptist Missionary Society, who
lived only a stones throw away from his residence.

The Jamaica had
been delayed in sailing from Liverpool, it was planned for the
5 November 1840. The farewell meeting was on the 4 November.
There was a terrible storm on the 17 November 1840 and four
ships were dismasted or sunk off the Formby sandbanks and
lives were lost – so near to the port and the young Thomas
Jones and Ann Jones had a voyage of five months less two days
before them with the prospect of being three months out of
sight of land or sail. Is it a wonder that Thomas Jones
addressed the Jamaica as he went on board. ‘Is it to the
judgement or to India you will take me?’

They sailed as
it were into a limbo beyond the reach of any communication. On
the day they sailed, that is 25 November 1840, Josiah Hughes
died of cholera in Malacca and his father in Rose Place might
well not hear the news for another five or six months. This
time gap imposed tremendous stresses on both missionary and
directors. How could missionaries plead for emergency aid? How
could the directors sustain interest and zeal without news?
Prayer was the only channel for emergency aid and prayer and
dedication and patience were needed at home as abroad.

They did arrive
safely in Calcutta and were very kindly welcomed by both
Presbyterians and Baptist friends. Mrs Ann Jones who had
experienced a terrible voyage gave birth to a child soon after
arrival in Calcutta. Four years later she was delivered of
another child and she herself died ten days later. By this
time the Rev William Lewis had arrived in Cherrapunji to
support Thomas Jones and was hard at work. He wrote to tell
the Directors of this sad news, and he added, ‘The Lord has
worked wondrously with us to make us feel at home, for now we
have a place to bury our dead.’ That was not black humour but
faith.

I wonder if we
can sense the awe in the hearts of the congregation at Rose
Place, all 700 of them, in a three and half hour farewell
service, as they saw before them two whose faces they might
never see again, who faced a new world of experience in which
their indomitable courage and the profundity of their faith
alone could keep them in good heart. We cannot imagine the
isolation of their experience, but at least we can be glad
that they went – pioneers of the Christian faith.

In one other
thing we can see a tension exemplified in Thomas Jones’ work
which exists in mission work at the end of the twentieth
century – namely that between evangelism only and fall Mission
which sees that all life is to be dedicated to the Lord and to
His Glory.

Thomas Jones
learnt a language which he set into the Roman script which has
endured, Orgraff yr Iaith Gymraeg – the orthography of the
Welsh Language – in Wales was not fixed till 1922 and the work
of the scholars such as Sir John Rhys and Sir John
Morris-Jones. Thomas Jones’ spelling needed little change, in
one hundred and fifty years. Thomas Jones preached the Gospel
of salvation and he made the wellsprings of faith accessible
to the humble Khasi people by translating for them the Gospel
of Matthew and other books in a script they could comprehend.
He taught skills to a people without skills to give and women
the dignity of craftsmen. He was moved by poverty and
injustice and fought them ultimately at the cost of his own
life. He died in Calcutta, 16 September 1849 and was buried in
the Church of Scotland cemetery. They had arrived in Calcutta
April 1841, and soon mastered the Khasi language.

Thank God for
Thomas Jones and his wife Ann, poor dear, as the pioneers of
an effective preaching of the Gospel and the calling of
mankind to enjoy the dignity of the children of God.

[This address (edited by D Ben Rees) was given at St Nicholas
Parish Church, Liverpool by the retired Liverpool Welsh
medical missionary, Dr R Arthur Hughes (1910-1996) on 10
November 1990 in a special service. For further details of Dr
R Arthur Hughes see The Call and Contribution of Dr Robert
Arthur Hughes, edited by D Ben Rees (Liverpool, 2004). Price
£8.00.]

First of all I must thank you for sending the message that ‘Thomas
Jones had arrived’. It was brought into the service by a Chief
Inspector of Police who announced from the back of the church that
a message had come and that ‘Thomas Jones had arrived’. It was
quite a dramatic little touch. I will come back to that later.
We had a full congregation in this 700 year old church of Saint
Nicholas, which stands only the width of a pavement from the site
of the Georges Dock from which Thomas Jones sailed. The church’s
history has been interrupted by several calamities, last of all by
being bombed during the great blitz on Liverpool during the last
war.
The English and Welsh Presbyteries on Merseyside were well
represented and there were a number who had come from North Wales
– including some of the old missionaries. We also had the
Moderator of the General Assembly – the Reverend Leslies Jones
(who will be coming to Shillong for the celebration), and the
Moderator of the Association (Synod) in North Wales, and the
Moderator Elect of the English Association. All the Welsh and
English ministers on Merseyside took part and the whole service
was very orderly and well done. The Canon (Rector of the Church of
Saint Nicholas) welcomed us all and rejoiced to think that his
church was a mute beholder of the departure of Thomas Jones and
his wife 150 years ago.
We had contrived Welsh and English orders of service so that all
could follow every part of the service. After introductory
devotions I gave an address in English giving an outline of the
history of the events leading up to the departure and then various
voices acted out the parts of those who took part in the farewell
service which had been held in Rose Place Chapel on 4 November
1840. Several have commented since that that section of the
service could be rendered as a drama. Some of your young rangbah
may think the same.
Your letter came next and this was followed by the greeting from
the moderators and the Mission Board.
We will send you as soon as possible the English programme plus
the historical introduction and the greetings and the hymn tunes.
Perhaps we may even be able to send you a cassette of the hymn set
to the tune ‘Calcutta’.
For us it was memorable service and some of us thought that the
Khasi Hills had become nearer to our hearts.
Thank you very much for your part – it would have been a delight
to have heard your voice giving the message! We will try to let
you have the complete text as quickly as we can.
Khublei shibun eh is phi baroh para-bangeit bad nongtrei ha ka kam
U Blei. Ka Kristmas kaba dap jingkmen bad Ka Snem Thymmai kaba dap
jingsuk.
Na uba kynmaw ieit ia phi barch.